Edis Felić: The police could have acted more humanely with the arrested driver

It is sultry, and as I grow older, I find it increasingly difficult to endure, but I am still far from those who complain that it is unbearable. The unfortunate bus driver who overturned on the highway near Slavonski Brod last weekend is only a few years older than me, yet despite all the misfortune that has befallen him, the man evidently spent more than 24 hours in a bloody shirt in this heat. I fear this is just one of several examples that show the police must seriously work on a more humane treatment of those they detain.

Thus, media photographs show that the bus driver was brought in for questioning before the investigating judge of the County Court in Slavonski Brod the next day in a shirt stained with visible drops of blood. One does not need to be Sherlock Holmes to conclude that the man had been wearing the same shirt for more than 24 hours since the moment of the accident. The police could have at least made it a little easier for him in what I assume is a difficult psychological state and asked him if he wanted to take a shower, find him some ordinary clean shirt, although I believe that at that moment, that was the least of his concerns. Even without such heavy humidity, a person who experiences such a fate begins to sweat, and the humidity that hit us on Monday was quite heavy.

The question of assessment

Moreover, this case should certainly provoke thoughts about whether detainees must be handcuffed in all situations. The Law on Police Procedures and Powers states that a police officer is authorized to use means of restraint to prevent resistance or refusal of an attack directed at the police officer, escape of a person, and self-harm or harm to another person. The Regulation on the conduct of police officers specifies how a detainee is to be restrained, with exceptions such as pregnant women, persons with disabilities, the sick, the elderly…, if they are not violent. This means that in all other cases, detainees must be restrained, so the police clearly acted according to the Regulation.

However, I believe the Regulation should be corrected to take into account the situation in which the detainee found himself. In the specific case of the bus driver, who is likely in a difficult psychological state, it is hard to imagine that he would think of resisting the police or escaping. As security expert and former police criminalist Željko Cvrtila stated for the Index portal, this is a serious traffic offense, but he does not see why the driver would flee, although he notes that 'the assessment is ultimately made by the police'. But I will repeat: in this case, there was no assessment; the police acted according to the Regulation. Therefore, I believe it should be corrected to leave room for police officers, as professionals, to assess whether there is a danger that the detainee will resist or harm someone during the arrest and transfer to the building for questioning.

A worrying phenomenon

Recently, we have also witnessed inhumane treatment by the police in cases of the arrest of immigrants from the Arab world, which were illegally returned to Bosnia (I saw some beaten immigrants in Bosanska Krajina) and in the case of a blind man who was mistakenly arrested instead of another person. This abuse by some police officers (not all) is condemnable, but it also tells us that there are those in the police for whom humanity is the last thing on their minds. Because if a blind man is beaten, even if he were a criminal (and he was not), it becomes worrying. In other words, tomorrow any one of us could be brought to the police for an unintentional offense, and we will have to pray to God that we fall into the hands of those police officers who will first determine whether we are some kind of aggressors or peaceful and frightened people who have unfortunately ended up in police custody.

Police work is hard, police officers are poorly paid, but still, the Ministry of the Interior needs to work on amending regulations and additional education to preserve the dignity of at least those detainees who have unfortunately ended up in police custody. 

POST SCRIPTUM

My grandfather often used to tell me, while he was alive, that the greatest punishment for a man is when his conscience begins to haunt him. In the difficult moments for the driver who faces serious prison time and the even worse thought that his conscience will torment him for the rest of his life due to the death of ten people in a traffic accident, the police could have at least preserved his dignity in public while he was exposed to the gaze of passersby, journalists, and cameras and calmly brought him, unrestrained, to the County Court. This way, with a bloody shirt he had worn for more than 24 hours and handcuffs on his hands, his dignity was seriously violated, as if he were a criminal.

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